Video Junkee Festival 2017: Day One Recap

Yesterday we attended the first ever Video Junkee Festival at Carriageworks, Sydney. We learnt a whole bunch on the value of video content and how it has revolutionised the way we share information. Whether it’s wanting to share with people our personal lives, our passions and our sense of humour, we make a video to nurture and develop an audience and to appreciate our own sense of creativity.

We took away some vital lessons from some of the sessions and the incredible keynote speech delivered by Yael Stone, known for her roles in Netflix’sOrange is the New Black and Australian TV crime drama Deep Water.

Straya: Australians Go Viral

When it comes to your video content, you shouldn’t aim for it to go viral as soon as you upload it on to YouTube. It takes a lot of hard work and effort when it comes to crafting your own voice in your videos. You allow audiences to see a part of yourself and what you care about, so the first thing you should do is share it with your friends.

Your friends understand your humour; they know you on a personal level, and they will do whatever it takes to help you succeed. Theo and Nathan Saidden from Superwog noted down that the only reason why they got into video content creation was to make their friends laugh. Since 2008 and a couple of hundred videos later, they have managed to build an audience with 700K subscribers and launched their first ever TV pilot this year.

Pitch, Please

Lesson Two: Be passionate and knowledgeable when it comes to your pitch

Whether you’re aiming to pitch your first ever web series or TV pilot, it’s important to do your research when it comes to your audience; what your purpose is and how you will deliver the expected outcomes from your project. Most importantly, you need to show passion and belief in what you’re pitching. Yeah, it’s nerve-wracking when you’re talking to people who are experienced producers and directors, but it takes persistence to get better at your pitch. Also, believe in the story and purpose of your project. Everything will fall into place if you do these things.

Branded Content That Doesn’t Suck

Lesson Three: Make content that is relatable to your audience.

We are in the era where social media and video content come hand-in-hand and brands have started to notice the visibility of both when it comes to their marketing strategies. Most brands want to sell their product, but what they don’t understand is that selling isn’t going to meet their expectations when it comes to their targets. Having an authentic story to tell can help build your brand if you make content that doesn’t have that “selling approach”. Come up with a storytelling voice and try to incorporate it with your brand.

Streaming is The New Black with Yael Stone

Lesson Four: Storytelling is an important foundation to how our society works

Yael Stone delivered an incredible keynote speech, explaining the foundations of storytelling and how it can impact our growth as a society. What not many people realise is, the art of binge-watching shouldn’t be about getting through as many episodes as you can. It’s about being conscious of the content you watch and taking the values from it while applying them in real life. Stone addressed the importance of how Orangeis The New Black was the first TV show to deliver trans representation, giving a positive light to actress Laverne Cox.

She noted down the struggles Cox faced when it came to constantly being rejected through auditions because being trans wasn’t the “norm” back then. The way we craft stories can also address issues we feel strongly about – whether from a political or social point of view. Storytelling doesn’t have to be pure fictional; it could mean finding the voice everyone needs to hear in society. To make sense of this terrifying yet beautiful world we live in.

During our day-to-day life, we don’t realise how much video content we consume on a daily basis, unless we’re told directly that it has. Enriching our lives a little bit more, the first day of Video Junkee Festival highlighted the important issues in TV and video and why finding our voice in video content is what matters.

For more information on Video Junkee Festival, follow their website HERE

About the author

Jana has an everlasting passion for music. She loves writing meaningful and inspiring stories on talented rock bands and has a thirst for finding new music on a day-to-day basis. When she's not staying up late penning stories, she enjoys the occasional binge-watch of TV shows & movies and dreaming of cute dogs on Cool Dog Group.